


Four year, ten months, and twenty-nine days

by makebelieveanything



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluffy, Happy Ending, Kevin and Andrew learn to move on without him, M/M, Neil goes into witsec instead of coming back to the foxes, New Beginning, Starting Over, past Andrew/Kevin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:08:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27571276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makebelieveanything/pseuds/makebelieveanything
Summary: When Neil is saved by Stuart, and somehow escapes his father's house alive, he makes a deal with the FBI and goes into Witness Protection instead of going back to the Foxes. Kevin and Andrew learn to move on and move forward without him.And then Neil comes back.
Relationships: Kevin Day/Andrew Minyard, Kevin Day/Neil Josten, Kevin Day/Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 5
Kudos: 129





	Four year, ten months, and twenty-nine days

**Author's Note:**

  * For [justadreamfox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/justadreamfox/gifts).



> To my lovely and amazing friend Zan, thank you for all the late nights beta-ing for me, obsessing about our boys, and sharing all your random fic ideas. I wish you the happiest of birthdays and hope you enjoy some beautiful Kandreil here as a treat.
> 
> Also huge shout out to [wishbonetea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wishbonetea/pseuds/wishbonetea) for the last minute beta.

It was February in Columbia, and although the weather was reasonably mild in comparison to some places, it was still chillier than what Andrew’s warm-blooded body was happy with. It meant he had all the windows closed, the heat turned on, and was curled up on his couch with a blanket, a mug of hot chocolate, and a new book. It also meant he was not at all prepared to leave his cocoon when a startling knock sounded at his front door.

Who the hell was at his house? At 8 p.m.? On a Tuesday? Especially in fifty degree weather?

The knock sounded again, firm and insistent, and Andrew didn’t bother to hide his grunt of annoyance as he finally unfurled himself from his blanket and trudged over to open the door.

Five years ago Andrew would have looked out the window before just opening his door, but since then Andrew had moved past the need to double check over his shoulder for an attack at every turn. It meant he was fully unprepared for what he found when he opened his front door: a 5’3” beauty with curly, auburn hair, startling ice-blue eyes, and a black duffle-bag slung over one shoulder.

Neil.

Andrew promptly slammed the door in his face and headed back to his living room.

“Andrew,” came a muffled call from outside which Andrew pointedly ignored.

“Andrew, seriously. It’s been five years, will you just open the door?” Andrew returned to the couch and wrapped himself back into his blanket.

“Andrew, I know you can hear me. I’m not going to go away until you talk to me.” Andrew pulled his mug of hot chocolate closer, balancing it in the blanket close to his chest so he could feel the warmth seep through his sweater.

“I still know how to pick locks, you know.” Andrew huffed at that, but opened his book with his other hand and intently started reading again.

“Fucking fine… Asshole...hmmmppfff… drama...” Andrew heard the muttering and occasional curse through the door as Neil presumably attempted to pick the already unlocked door. It wasn’t until the door swung open and Neil tumbled in - just barely avoiding landing flat on his face, Andrew noted with extreme satisfaction - that Andrew deigned to say anything to him.

“It’s unlocked.”

“Clearly,” Neil muttered, climbing gracefully to his feet and pushing the door closed behind him. “So, is this how it is now? We aren’t friends anymore?” Neil asked as he nonchalantly dropped his bag by the door and shuffled over to be within Andrew’s line of sight.  
“Five years, Neil. Five fucking years. Draw your own conclusions,” Andrew responded, refusing to look up, refusing to get drawn in by the sincerity in Neil’s eyes - knowing if he did he’d drown in it.

“I know, Andrew. Don’t you think I know exactly how long it’s been? Four years, ten months, twenty-nine days.”

That drew Andrew’s attention away from his book; of course he knew exactly how many days it had been - his memory never let him forget it - but for Neil to know meant he’d been paying attention to those days. For Neil to know it took effort.

“Why?” Andrew asked, not looking up, but not reading his book anymore either.

“Why what, Drew,” Neil asked softly, the nickname sliding across his tongue as if it had always been there. “There were so many choices I made back then, I don’t know which answer you want from me.”

“Four years, ten months, twenty-nine days,” was Andrew’s reply. After years of working on his communication with Bee and with his other therapists after, he could communicate better if he wanted to, but Andrew also wanted to test Neil; he wanted to see if Neil was still as perceptive as he used to be.

“I didn’t think it would take this long,” Neil admitted, shuffling a bit where he stood, half in the living room, half in the entryway. Andrew couldn’t tell if it was due to nervousness or discomfort, but he sat patiently and waited for Neil to continue. “I refused to put you directly in the line of fire. Not again,” Neil finally said, his piercing gaze finally looking up from his feet to stare straight at Andrew.

Andrew didn’t move from that gaze as his memory flashed back to the rooftop at Palmetto, to a similar conversation they’d had before Neil had been kidnapped. Andrew specifically telling Neil to stand down and let Andrew protect him, and Neil staunchly saying,

“If it means losing you, then no.”

At first Andrew thought his memory was going into overdrive, the words sounded so loud and clear to his ears even though they were said five years ago. Then he realized it was because Neil had said them, out loud, here, now.

Those words sparked an identical reaction in Andrew as they had back then, a warmth in his chest that spread through his fingertips and into his belly, where butterflies were doing flips in Andrew’s stomach. This was Neil, the first person to throw himself in harm’s way to protect Andrew without ever expecting anything in return; the first person to refuse to drag Andrew into their battles because they refused to be another person who hurt him.

Andrew thought he’d lost him.

Andrew really didn’t recall making the choice to set down his mug, stand up from his blanket nest, and walk over to stand toe to toe with Neil. But he found himself there nonetheless, and he wasn’t about to back down now. Four years, ten months, and twenty-nine days was long enough.

“Yes or no, Neil?”

“Yes,” Neil breathed unquestioningly.

And just as Andrew remembered, Neil didn’t move his arms from his sides, he didn’t lean into Andrew’s space, he didn’t do anything other than gasp into Andrew’s kiss, his eyelids fluttering closed as Andrew kissed him, strong, steady, confident. Still it had been _almost_ five years, and Andrew had done a lot of work on himself in that time - had learned to feel comfortable with himself - so he wrapped his hands around Neil’s wrists, dragging one up to his hair and the other to Andrew’s waist as Andrew’s hands wound themselves both up behind Neil’s neck and into his curls. He anchored himself in Neil’s hair and pulled him deeper into the kiss, pressing himself flush against Neil’s body, swallowing Neil’s quiet moans.

Eventually Andrew pulled himself away, long enough to press their foreheads together as they tried desperately to catch their breaths.

“I let you go, once, because you asked me to let you fight your own battles. Don’t expect me to do it again,” Andrew said sternly.

“I promise,” Neil replied solemnly, the statement only slightly impacted by the absolutely wrecked tone of his voice. “You’re all I have left worth fighting for anyways.”

****

What Neil had said was true, Andrew was the reason he’d kept fighting for all those years. He was the reason Neil had suffered through witness protection, through the way too many years of FBI investigations and long legal trials. This was always the end goal: stand up to his monsters, fight his own battles - without putting his friends, or Andrew (specifically Andrew) - in the crosshairs, _again_. Neil didn’t know how lucky he was to have come back after so long and to find Andrew - his Andrew - in the same house, in the same city.

It was everything Neil had dreamed of for the entirety of the time he’d been away, but it didn’t mean everything was the same. Neil and Andrew had led separate lives for those years; they were not the same people they had been before. Although they easily fell back into the physical part of their relationship, starting up basically where they’d left off, their emotional relationship needed some work.

Andrew let Neil stay in Aaron’s old room. Apparently after they graduated, Andrew had bought the house from Nicky when he’d moved back to Germany and Aaron had moved to Boston for medical school. So Neil stayed in the house, and for an entire week they got to spend their days doing whatever they wanted.

They talked, they argued, they kissed, they caught up. It was slow work, trying to rebuild a relationship that had been spontaneously put on hold almost five years ago - without notice, without prior knowledge that there would ever be a chance to press play again. When Neil had somehow walked out of his father’s house, alive, he made the decision right then that he couldn’t go back to the Foxes. He couldn’t see them and tell them that he’d spent the whole year putting them in danger, and then ask them to let him do it all over again.

Instead he’d accepted the deal with the FBI, he’d gone straight into witness protection - a single letter to Andrew the only concession he allowed himself before he walked away from the only life that had ever really been worth fighting for.

So this time, Neil stayed, and he spent every minute of that week with Andrew doing what he promised he would do, fighting for Andrew (as he’d been doing the entire time).

He just hadn’t realized he wasn’t the only one fighting for him.

****

It was exactly one week after Neil’s spontaneous arrival on Andrew’s doorstep - duffle-bag in hand, looking like the reincarnation of the runaway he’d been when Andrew had first handed him a key - when another knock sounded on Andrew’s door.

Andrew and Neil had just ordered a ridiculous amount of Chinese food for dinner, but it was way too soon for the delivery to have arrived already. They both stared at the door as the knock sounded, again, a little more hurried than the first.

“Is this how you felt when I knocked?” Neil muttered under his breath to Andrew.

“Mmh,” Andrew answered, getting up from his couch with a little more apprehension this time.

“No wonder you shut the door in my face,” Neil mused, shuffling himself sideways on the couch so he had a clear view of the door as Andrew walked over and tugged it upon.

Neither of them expected what he found: Kevin Day, all six feet, black hair, green eyes, and holding a single black rose.

Andrew slammed the door in his face too.

Neil shoved his hand in his mouth to keep from laughing. He didn’t know for sure what he was laughing at, but he knew what being on the receiving end of that slammed door felt like, and he could hear Kevin - flustered and muttering incoherently - and laughing felt like the only appropriate reaction.

Unlike Neil, Kevin clearly didn’t plan on forcing his way into the house, and being his typical Kevin-self, he knocked again but much more forcefully.

“Andrew Joseph Minyard, I know you’re in there. Open this damn door, it’s cold out here,” Kevin demanded, the forceful knocking continuing non-stop as if Kevin was trying to simply pound his way inside instead.

Maybe Andrew had learned his lesson with Neil, or maybe he just wasn’t nearly as mad at Kevin as he’d been at Neil, but either way Andrew re-opened the door - allowing Kevin to shoulder his way inside before he closed it again.

Kevin immediately turned towards Andrew, oblivious to Neil who sat silently on the couch watching them, and without any preamble shoved the rose he was holding out to Andrew.

“Here.”

Andrew eyed it skeptically, not reaching out a hand to take it, and Kevin huffed - clearly flustered.

“What are you doing here?” Andrew asked instead of taking the flower, letting it hang there in between them like a shield.

“What does it look like? I’m here for you,” Kevin said, barely controlling the exasperated tone lacing his words.

“Kevin, it’s been three years, we’ve talked about this. You chose California, I chose to stay here.”

“I was wrong,” Kevin said in return. The arm that wasn’t still outstretched between Andrew and himself landed on his hip in a very Kevin-esque manner. The stance was wildly ineffective though when he was still standing there holding out a rose like the star of an 80’s rom-com.

“What do you mean?”

“You heard me. I was wrong, and now I’m trying to rectify it. I know I should have called instead of just showing up, and I know you don’t care about this holiday, and I know you especially don’t like surprises. But I couldn’t help it. I needed to tell you, and I needed to see you, and I didn’t think you’d open the door if I told you ahead of time.” Kevin was rambling, in a very un-Kevin-like manner.

Neil was starting to feel like maybe he shouldn’t be privy to this conversation, feeling as if he was intruding on something he wasn’t supposed to know. But just like Andrew, he also couldn’t pull his eyes away from Kevin. It had been so many years. Neil had watched Kevin Day become the biggest name in College Exy, and then the biggest name in Professional Exy too; he had watched Kevin take his rightful place on top without Neil’s help; he had watched every single match Kevin had played since Neil had left - still none of that compared to seeing him again, real and alive, standing in front of him, completely unaware that he even existed.

“Stop,” Andrew said, interrupting Kevin’s rambling and Neil’s catastrophizing thoughts. “What are you talking about, Kevin?”

“I’m talking about the fact that I traded teams to South Carolina - the paperwork just went through this morning. I’m talking about the fact that it’s February 14th, and because I was always the sappy one in this relationship, I bought you a goddamn rose as an olive branch. I’m saying I was wrong, and I’m hoping you’ll give me another chance,” Kevin answered, punctuating his statement with a slight thrust of the rose towards Andrew.

Neil watched as Andrew’s eyes softened slightly around the edges. He watched as Andrew reached forward and finally took the rose from Kevin’s fingers - and he couldn’t stop the gasp of air that left his mouth as he felt like he’d been punched straight in the gut.

Suddenly it all made sense, Andrew had been with Kevin after Neil left. Neil hadn’t been naive enough to expect Andrew to have waited for him - especially when Andrew didn’t know there would be a “him” to wait for - but Neil hadn’t imagined that Kevin would take his place. The fact that the two people Neil had ever loved had turned to each other after he’d disappeared probably shouldn’t have surprised him, but it did all the same.

His gasp finally notified Kevin of his presence, and Neil watched as Kevin turned to look over his shoulder into the living room. Kevin’s bright green eyes met Neil’s immediately, and Neil watched as a flurry of emotions crossed Kevin’s face, finally settling on some combination of wistful hope and absolute disbelief.

“Neil,” Kevin whispered quietly.

“Kevin,” Neil responded.

“Andrew,” Kevin said, waving one of his hands behind him at the blond who still stood near the door. “Andrew! Neil is in your living room, what is Neil doing in your living room?” Kevin kept waving - as if that was an effective way to get information out of Andrew - but he seemed unwilling to tear his eyes away from Neil’s.

“Apparently, for the same reason you are,” Neil responded, trying to keep his voice light. “I’m sure you saw the trials, they were all over the news, but it took awhile for everything to finish and settle. I finally got out of Witness Protection, and I came back.”

“When?” Kevin demanded.

“A week ago,” Neil responded. Kevin’s face crumbled slightly, and Neil felt the sudden urge to get off the couch and rush towards him, but he didn’t. He and Kevin had always circled each other. All those years ago, they’d both been in orbit around Andrew - and although that orbit had, over time, started to tighten and overlap - it had never brought them close enough before Neil was forcibly pulled away. Now, for some reason, it felt like they were moving towards a head on collision at top speed.

“Were you going to tell me?” Kevin whispered, and Neil couldn’t tell if he was whispering because he was scared of knowing the answer, or scared that the answer would be no.

“As soon as I could figure out how,” Neil said just as softly.

The silence hung in the air between them, a rope growing tauter as the seconds passed and neither Kevin nor Neil moved to break it.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Andrew shattered the silence between them, striding purposefully into the room, the black rose still gripped in one hand as he grabbed Kevin’s wrist with the other and dragged him towards the living room. They reached Neil and Andrew laid the rose carefully on the coffee table before grabbing Neil’s hand and pulling him up from the couch.

“You two always were oblivious,” Andrew said as he held both of their hands firmly. “Neil, yes or no?”

“Yes,” Neil answered easily. Not quite sure what he was agreeing to, yet wholly trusting of not only Andrew, but also Kevin.

“Kevin,” Andrew asked next, “yes or no?”

“Yes,” Kevin answered, equally confident.

And then Andrew was kissing them. First he kissed Neil, slow and steady, just like he’d been kissing him all week; then Andrew kissed Kevin, soft and sweet, like he was remembering their years spent learning and growing together. Then Andrew was pushing Kevin towards Neil, and it wasn’t forceful, it wasn’t a demand - it was an offering, an opening - and Neil grasped on to it as hard as he could.

“Yes?” Neil muttered quickly, his face a breadth away from Kevin’s, and he felt Kevin’s answering, “Yes,” as he pressed his lips to his. It felt like Neil’s whole world crashed to a stop, just for one split second, and then it started moving again as if all the gears had finally fallen into place. Andrew’s hand was warm in his left, the strands of Kevin’s hair soft in his right, and then Kevin was pulling Neil in for a tight hug. Neither of them let go of Andrew - he was their solid rock, he was the gravity that kept them rooted to this place - but Kevin wrapped his arm around Neil’s waist holding him close as Neil hid his face in Kevin’s chest.

Neil had no idea how he had gone this long thinking he was only fighting for Andrew, but it felt absolutely right realizing he’d actually been fighting for this the whole time: the three of them, Andrew, and Kevin, and Neil.

So Neil thanked every god he knew, in every language he had ever learned, for giving him the chance to find this - for giving them the chance - then he pulled both of his boys in for another kiss. A promise that this time he was here to stay.

* * *

Epilogue:

They were all startled apart by another knock at the door, this one causing all three of them to jump.

“Who the fuck is that!?” Neil exclaimed, exasperated at the interruption. Andrew just glared daggers at the door and Kevin looked on in mild confusion.

“Delivery,” a muffled voice called from outside the door. Neil turned to Andrew and broke into peels of laughter as Andrew rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“You get the door this time, We’ll get plates,” Andrew said, pushing Neil towards the door. Kevin followed Andrew into the kitchen in bewildered amusement, and willingly accepted the plates and utensils piled into his hands. He returned to the living room to find Neil setting Chinese food out on the coffee table. Andrew walked in not far behind him holding three bottles of soda and a glass with water that he set in the middle of the coffee table and gently placed the single rose in.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, fuckers.”

**Author's Note:**

> I love to hear from you guys. Comments or kudos or hit me up on tumblr at [makebelieveanything](https://makebelieveanything.tumblr.com)


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